OPERATION OF ALOES ON THE HORSE. 183 
to cause action is said to have averaged from fifteen to 
twenty-seven hours ; but it must be observed that the pre- 
liminary phenomena, which I hold to be of the highest im- 
portance, are there not taken into account. 
Mr. Morton’s experiments were instituted to determine 
the relative action of two extracts — the Bombay and the 
Cape ; and it is to the relative properties of different aloes 
that I shall next revert. My experience has extended to the 
use of the three kinds of aloes, viz. : — the Barbadoes, the 
Cape, and Socotrine, and these always procured from the 
most respectable druggists ; but there is a great deal of con- 
fusion as to names, and, as they differ in their purgative 
doses, it is well to be clear on the point. I have derived 
much information from Professor Morton’s concise, plain, 
and useful work, and also read with interest Mr. Finlay 
Dun’s elaborate chapter on the subject. 
The Barbadoes Extract, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, is not used on the continent of Europe, nor is it 
found but in the shops of English Pharmaceutists that have 
imported it from England. Confining my inquiries to 
France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, all the best apothe- 
caries there, both for human and veterinary medicine, 
dispense an extract which receives the name of Aloe 
Socotrina. After much pains to collect information at diffe- 
rent places, extending over a long period of time, I find that 
the only reliable aloes in their estimation is the Socotrine ; 
but this variety corresponds in every w r ay with the best Cape 
extract of the London market. Before being convinced of 
this, I had for many years used the drug as bought on the 
Continent as socotrine. 
On leaving England for the first time, to practise at Naples, 
I took out with me a supply of Barbadoes and true Soco- 
trine, knowing that the latter was less irritating and pre- 
ferable for the human subject. At Naples I found every 
one using the so-called socotrine ; indeed, none but this and 
the caballine were to be found. My socotrine either did not 
act, or, so mildly as not to induce purgation. I need scarcely 
say such was not the case with the purgative mass containing 
the Barbadoes, the active qualities of which are known to all 
English veterinarians. 
The true socotrine is scarce, certainly not sufficient for 
our consumption, much less for European; and when I dis- 
covered that the aloe bought myself from a wholesale drug- 
gist at Leghorn, came not from the Levant or the coasts of 
Africa, but was directly imported from London, I was on the 
right scent to discover the truth. Mr. Morton found by his 
